`Judicial Misbehavior'

June 02, 2004

Responding to concern about judicial misconduct, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has created a committee to study the matter -- a wise first step.

Controversy erupted after disclosure that at least three times in three years Justice Antonin Scalia participated in court cases involving his hunting partners, including Vice President Richard Cheney. Mr. Scalia refused to step aside in a recent case involving the vice president, even though federal law states that a federal judge should recuse himself whenever ``his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.''

Justice Scalia is not the only justice tainted by conflict of interest, however. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg saw nothing wrong with lending her name to a lecture series co-sponsored by the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is involved in cases before the high court.

One big loophole in the court's ethics guidelines is that recusal decisions are left up to individual justices.

The chief justice has refused to pressure Justice Scalia to step aside in the Cheney case. It involves efforts by environmental groups to learn who testified in secret before a 2001 energy task force headed by the vice president. The task force has refused to disclose the names. A ruling is expected this year.

Justice Rehnquist provided few details about the mission or timetable of his review committee, headed by Justice Stephen Breyer, except to say it will study how the federal court system ``is dealing with judicial misbehavior and disability.''

The Rehnquist-Breyer committee will perform a valuable service if it drafts clear recusal standards along with enforcement provisions. That would go a long way toward restoring public confidence in the judiciary.